dabac

Hi,
while servicing a beater bike I discovered that the front axle was bent:


My first thought was ”that looks scary to mess with” so I swapped in another wheel and sent the bike out the door. (Don’t have a spare axle or donor hub at hand)
Later though, a treacherous thought came sneaking in:”I wonder if that could be straightened?”
And since I already had it apart and still in the shop, it was easy enough to try.
It turned out to be surprisingly doable. Within minutes it was straight enough that I couldn’t see any bends either rolling it across a reasonably flat surface or by holding it against the ruler.
The question is - now what?
If I reassemble the wheel, can it be trusted to be put back into service?
Or should I put it aside to wait for a new axle or donor hub to come my way?
Cups looks nice. Cheap, but round and true rim. Cones also OK.

alo

If it has only been bent and straightened once, it is probably OK to use. If it gets bent and straightened a number of times, it may become weak.

andrewclaus

Since it's a solid axle you might be okay, but far better to salvage a straight one, I think.

02Giant 

That one, yes.

Iride01 

For something as inexpensive as this................ Why?

Of course if I couldn't get a replacement before I had to ride, I'd make do and use it until I had the new part. Might avoid potholes and stumps.<grin>

WizardOfBoz

+1 Why?

79pmooney

Actually I'd feel more comfortable riding a straightened QR axle. Breaking would be no big deal until I took the wheel off and the bearings fell out.

This is a place where mediocre (soft) steel would a far better candidate for straightening than a quality axle.

Ben

dabac

Mostly to keep the number of UFOs - as in Un Finished Objects - down.

The rest of the wheel is in good enough condition for me to want to hang onto it.
But w/o an axle it gets delegated to that embarrassingly large pile of stuff that MIGHT be rendered useful, some day.
And down that route is hoarding.

With a functional axle, it goes into the smaller stack of items that are ready to go. Which feels like a nicer, healthier direction.

Miele Man

You should also consider what could happen if a straightened front axle breaks whilst you're riding in traffic or at any speed. Things that are okay on the rear wheel in case of a failure may not be so good on a front wheel.

Seeing as how you have the axle out of the hub, I'd take the axle and a nut to a bike shop (if one is open) near you and get another axle with the same threading. In my honest opinion it's far better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a possible front wheel failure.

Cheers

Iride01 

I didn't think you'd believe I meant replace the wheel. I meant to imply you just go out and buy a new axle which is about $4.00 new. Or scrounged for free. The bent one can go in the scrap steel bin for future recycling....... no pun intended.

Also, straightening a bend in the threaded portion is always more iffy than the unthreaded part. Threads don't let the surface spread the stress of bending and unbending as well as a smooth surface.

Russ Roth

I snapped a rear axle climbing a hill in the catskills, thankfully within a 1/4 mile of the end; the result was both the chain and seat stays bent along with the non-drive dropout and the wheel from slamming into the frame as I quickly ground to a halt. I'd expect a front axle snapping to be less catastrophic to the frame but far more so to the rider should it happen on the downhill. I'd trust it more with a quality quick release which might not be the most structural thing in the world but would still hold things together as snapped pieces would be wedged together and things would just get a little sloppy, I've actually seen this happen to a customer's front wheel and it took me a moment to figure out why the slop wouldn't go away by removing the skewer. With a bolt on wheel there's nothing holding the fork together other then the fork and it isn't designed like that. I wouldn't trust it.

grizzly59

An old USA / British made steel solid axle when straightened is better than a new chinese one. That small bend in a good steel axle won't be weakened by straightening.

Iride01 

Oh... so we need to know the origin country of the axle to determine whether it should be straightened. Interesting..... <grin>

Miele Man

Back in the mid-1980's I snapped the rear bolted on axle of my 21-speed Bianchi MTB as I was riding up a paved road out of a valley. When I got to the top I wiggled the wheel and though perhaps the cones had come loose. I road the bike home and when I removed the rear wheel to adjust the cones the two broken halves of the axle fell out.

I really would not want to be riding any bicycle when a front axle broke.

Cheers